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Thursday, May 25, 2017

Areopagitica (Milton Journal)

A bland, boring book cover; what were you expecting?

Areopagitica was a
hard read for me. Why probably has to deal with Milton’s Latin background but
also maybe some of the language of the time. It felt very disorienting. The
beginning, for example, felt like I was thrown into an already present debate;
perhaps because I am used to formal academic writing, not having any kind of
preamble about what a tract is going to be about was more obtuse than it would
have otherwise been.

In any
case, the actual text was certainly fiery. It was ripe with righteous
metaphors, powerful condemnations, and spirited animosity barely disguised as
formal rhetoric; it was like the seventeenth century equivalent of “sorry, not
sorry”. In a word—Milton Unchained!

Regarding
the passage that appeared on page 725, though, that was Milton at his best.
Logically, the argument he made is classic and straddles both sides while slyly
putting forth a strong defense of his own position. Combining logic with
ethics, then, Milton attacks the idea of censorship from a primal footing and
returns the burden of proof to his adversaries: if censorship is such a
fantastic idea, then why is it that only the minds of most wicked intent seem
to be able to utilize it to any definitive end?

“I am
of those who believe it will be a harder alchemy than Lullius ever knew to
sublimate any good use out of such an invention.” Burn! Milton took off his
intellectual glove and smacked some ignorant fools up! …at any rate, he makes a
cogent argument, bases it on history, and then subdues its more mangled
elements in a veneer of philosophy and ethics. This is why this passage is so
crucial, because it confronts the core issue; that, yes, censorship can be used
for good, but it more likely to be made for evil.

In many
respects, it reminds me of arguments in certain Leftist circles about the
nature of censorship. About whether reactionary works should be censored and
what the risks associated with censorship. Milton, then, sounds much like an
ardent Trotskyist raging against the degeneracy of Stalin’s Russia. I suppose I
could go on with this point, but I think the example speaks for itself.